Friday, August 1

Antique Queens from far and near it's Eureka's 14th annual Yards and Yards of Yard Sales. Friday and Saturday 7:00 AM to 3:00 PM. Find locator maps at shops and restaurants. Sponsored,oddly,by the Greater Eureka Springs Chamber of Commerce.

GET HITCHED! Domestic Partner Certificates. The courthouse is closed Saturday and Sunday. City Clerk's office is in the City Hall, lower level of the Western Carroll County Courthouse, 44 S. Main. Office hours are 9:30 AM - 12 Noon and 1:30 to 4:30 PM.

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Judy Shepard, the mother of Matthew Shepard, a 21-year-old gay man who was murdered in October 1998 will speak in the Multipurpose Room of the Student Center on the campus of Northwest Arkansas Community College (NWACC), Wednesday June 25th from 7 P.M. to 9 P.M. Judy and her husband, Dennis, created the Matthew Shepherd Foundation in his memory. She will discuss her experience of losing a child to a hate crime, her efforts to strengthen hate crime legislation, and her efforts to carry Matthew's message of respect and dignity for others.

Please join us for this event and show your support for our GLBT community! The public is welcome to attend.

Wednesday, 25 June 2008
7:00 – 9:00 p.m.
Multipurpose Room
Student Center
Northwest Arkansas Community College
(Click here for driving directions/map to the Student Center)

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In yesterday's report of our visit to the 2008 ACLU Membership Conference, we mentioned a fellow speaker by the name of Evie Farnsworth who has been working with a group called Support Student Safety.

Their mission: To convince the Metropolitan Nashville Board of Education to add sexual orientation and gender identity to the public school anti-discrimination policy.

At yesterday's meeting, the Metro Nashville BOE voted to approve Support Student Safety's recommendation.

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One hundred seventy three days after four ordinary civilians armed with laptop computers hunkered down in a Eureka Springs living room to Google the subject, the first Domestic Partnership Registry (DPR) in Arkansas became a reality on June 22, 2007.

Three hundred and fifty three days later, Jan and I traveled to Washington, D.C. to talk about Eureka's DPR at the 2008 ACLU Membership Conference.

I didn't think I was going to make it through the security checkpoint at Northwest Arkansas Regional Airport.

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After almost a year of anti-gay propaganda from American Family Association and assorted other homophobes, the Eureka Springs gay community is asserting itself in print and on-line.

While the AFA has done a fine job of advertising the city's gay charms--including the only Domestic Partnership Registry in Arkansas--it needed a little help reaching our target market--gay and lesbian travelers.

What began in December as an effort to persuade regional gay magazines to publish travel stories about Eureka Springs has produced substantial dividends:

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The May issue of Houston's OutSmart magazine--with seven full pages devoted to gay Eureka Springs--is now . . . well, out.

Celebrate this major marketing and public relations achievement and get your copy of the magazine at Marquee's (former location of Caribe Restaurante y Cantina) on Thursday, May 15 at 6:30 p.m.

«With all it has to offer the GLBT traveler, Eureka Springs should be considered on par with Key West, Provincetown and Palm Springs as a gay vacation paradise,» writes OutSmart contributor Bradley Williams.

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Last Thursday, Uruguay became the first nation in Latin America to marry a gay couple, after a law allowing couples living together to formalize their union went into effect at the start of the year. Couples who have lived together for five years, regardless of sexual orientation, will be granted spousal rights at the federal level under Uruguay's «cohabitation union law.» Though several cities, including Buenos Aires and Mexico City, have inclusive civil union laws on the books, Uruguay's law is the first nationwide measure in Latin America.

As expected, the Pope is in a holy uproar over Uruguay's move to join Canada as the second nation on the American Continents to support civil and human rights for all. His Holiness is reportedly quite annoyed that he will be required to take time out of his busy schedule of covering up the misdeeds of altar-boy-buggering priests to take a firm stand against the «moral decline» of Uruguay.

Go figure.

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In the days leading up to and immediately following Spring Diversity Weekend (April 3-6), a dozen couples from five states--Arkansas, Missouri, Oklahoma, Missouri and even Florida--signed up for the Eureka Springs Domestic Partnership Registry.

That brings the total number of registrants to 342 individuals (or 171 couples) from Arkansas and 10 other states.

Collectively, they have--in just under 10 months--boosted city revenues by $5,985 by ponying up $35 per couple for a Domestic Partnership Certificate.

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While out of towners plan their Diversity Weekends months in advance, the event has a way of sneaking up on busy business owners. So this is a reminder.

Spring Diversity Weekend is this weekend, April 3-6.

The earliest scheduled events offer gay and gay-friendly business owners the opportunity to meet and mingle with and hand out their business cards to visitors who will be shopping downtown later--and in the months and years to come.

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Harold Ellis, a member of the Mayor's Tourism Task Force, has conveyed an invitation to gay and gay-friendly businesses from the Pine Mountain Jamboree.

«Mike Bishop has invited all LGBT business owners and our supporters in Eureka Springs to attend his show at the Pine Mountain Jamboree on Wednesday, April 9th at 8 p.m.. We are also welcome to attend the pre-show that starts at 7:30. I think those of you who have not attended one of these shows will be pleasantly surprised.

Mike is extending the invitation as his guests. That means free!

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